Epiphany of Christ News - January

1050 W Superstition Blvd. Apache Junction, AZ 85120

Phone: 480-982-1569 – Website: epiphanyofchristlutheran.org

Pastor Steve Crittenden

A Message from the Church Council

The 2½ % Dilemma

The church council has been busy working on

next year’s budget. As we reviewed the

expected expenditures for the coming year, we

were faced with increased costs for paper and

printer ink for our bulletins, increased costs for

water, published increases in the price for

summer air conditioning, and increases in the

demands for general maintenance of our

wonderful, but ageing, church home. In short,

we are about 2½% short of the funds

needed to continue services at the same level as

this past year. The council hopes that the

congregation would consider increasing their

church givings.

Wow! A 2½ % increase sounds like a lot.

Here’s what the increase means if your weekly

donation is:

$5/week, the increase is 12 ½ cents

$10/week, the increase is 25 cents

$20/week, the increase is 50 cents

$40/week, the increase is $1.00, etc.

Put in those terms, the increase seems fairly

modest. Please remember, it is in giving that we

receive.

Your servants in Christ, the Church Council

The Church Council

God’s Work – Our Hands

Mission Schedule and Needs

January: Genesis Project --- Needs: Ground Coffee and Jelly February: Hope Women’s Center --- Needs to be announced March: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Cash or Checks for the following needs: 1) Water Filters, 2) Mosquito Nets, 3) Honey Bees

Report of the Last 4 Months’ Mission Results: Lutheran Social Services: $519.70, and 6 boxes of diapers Apache Junction Food Bank: $184.81, and 71 pounds of canned food Jose’s Closet: $332.46 in gift cards and Cash Project Help: $1,230 in gift cards and cash as of December 16th

(A special thanks to Sandy Johnson for organizing all of the mission projects.)

God’s purpose for our church is to invite all to worship and grow through study, fellowship and mission.

We cordially invite

you to join our church

family:

Contact Pastor Steve for

Regular Membership

or

Associate Membership

for our very welcome

Winter Visitors.

Appointments for pictures for the new

direc church directory will start Jan. 28th to

the 3 Jan. 31st. ---- CHEESE! ----

Sm

ile

Reminder of what Winter

Visitors are missing

Have you signed up for a

name tag? Forms are

located in the narthex. We’d

like to know you by name!

DID YOU KNOW??

We collect aluminum cans, newspapers and other

paper products in the yellow recycling dumpsters

at the northwest end of the parking lot. The

proceeds from these collections go to help fund

our Mission Projects. Three of the dumpsters are

for paper products, one is only for aluminum cans

– they are labeled so it is easy to deposit in the

correct dumpster. What an easy way to help

fund these important projects.

THANK YOU!

Are you 70 1/2 or older?? Do you have an

Individual Retirement Account (IRA)??

Would you like to pay less income tax??

If so, please keep reading!!

The recently passed tax law raises the standard

deduction to $12,000 for single filers and $24,000

for married couples. This means a lot of our

members who used to itemize their tax deductions

will now only take advantage of the standard

deduction in 2019.

If you’ve been using your former charitable

deduction to offset your IRA distributions, you may

want to consider what’s commonly referred to as a

“Charitable Rollover”. A Charitable Rollover allows

you to give directly from your IRA without having to

pay taxes on that distribution. In effect you can now

get both the standard deduction plus an additional

deduction for your church donations.

. Because we’re in the Jesus business, not the tax

business, please consult your tax advisor before

doing a Charitable Rollover. We just want to make

sure you’re aware of this great opportunity.

Thank you for your gifts, no matter how you give.

BOOK CLUB

The Club meets at 10 AM on the 2nd and 4th Wed. of each month in the conf. room. Wed. Jan. 8th we will be discussing “Minding Frankie.” Each month we choose a new book provided by the local library. Starting the 4th Wed. of Jan. (the 22nd) and each following 4th Wed., we will start our new practice of reading a chapter of the Bible following the church year lectionary. Chapter 1 of Matthew will be our first effort. ----- Contact: Fran LeVeque (480) 812-5900 ----

Opportunities for Service

There are sign up sheets in the entrance hall for

Ushers, Communion Servers, Readers and in the

Friendship Hall a sheet for Coffee Servers. New

members to the choir are always needed and

welcome. We hope that you can help with these

important services to our church family.

NOTICES: Offering envelopes for 2020 are here -

they will be available in the Narthex for the next couple of weeks.

Please "Like" and "Follow" us on Facebook!

Can you share some of your time with our

volunteer church yard and maintenance group?

We do minor church tasks and work to maintain our

beautiful church grounds and rose garden. We meet

on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and occasionally

on Friday. Tasks last sometime from 7:30 till Noon.

--- (We almost always have time for coffee/rolls) ---

Call Don Gimpel to see what tasks are on the list and

let him know when you are available: 651-261-2381

Epiphany is a Christian feast day that celebrates the

revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. In

Western Christianity, it is marked by a feast day,

January 6th. The feast commemorates the visit of the

Magi to the Christ Child, and Jesus' manifestation to

the Gentiles. "Epiphany" is sometimes used to signify

sudden moments of clarity. The Oxford Dictionary

carries the following definition: "A moment of

sudden and great revelation or realization." We, at

Epiphany of Christ, look forward to a brand-new year

again revealing God’s sudden and surprising gifts of

love and forgiveness – an epiphany.

Quilting for Charity

Do you have some quilting or sewing skills? The

church has loads of material (some precut in

squares) to piece at home or at the church. Then

join the group to tie in the quilting room.

------ Contact: Carolyn Lewis (612) 226-4321 ---